Back in the Sixties, when I was with my first group, the Birds, me and the bass player, Kim Gardner, used to really enjoy listening to Bo's songs - funny ones such as 'Say Man' (sample line: 'You look like you've been whooped with an ugly stick'). We loved all the freaky sound effects on his records. His sound, which has been described as the devil moving his furniture, still turns me on today. All those early Bo Diddley recordings on Chess Records are absolutely brilliant.

The first time I met him was back in the Sixties at the 100 Club [in London]. He was topping the bill and the Birds were one of the support acts, but he didn't have a band with him so he asked us if we could back him up. What made him so great was his freedom, his reckless abandon, and the confidence that shone through in his music. He could break and change a guitar string onstage without stopping the song. I toured with him for the best part of a year in the Eighties and we had great fun. I got to know him really well and he was always very affectionate towards me.

Bo was quite a regular guy. He would more or less sit you on his knee, a bit like your granddad, and tell you a story about back in the old days and how he never used to understand racial segregation. 'There's a tap over here for black people and a tap over there for white people,' he'd say, 'but the pipe is joined underneath. It's the same pipe.'

It was an honour to play with him. I'd have the respect to let him take the lead, and he respected me a lot, too, and gave me my own little solo section during the show. He would take my suggestions. I'd say: 'Come on, let's do "You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover",' and he'd go: 'Oh yeah, you like that one?' I'd suggest 'I'm a Man' and he'd say: 'I wrote that, you know.' I'd say: 'Oh, I thought Muddy Waters wrote that.' 'Nah, he wrote "Mannish Boy".' 'But it's the same song!' He and Muddy Waters had that friendly rivalry all through their lives.

He made me laugh. He was cheerful, positive and very encouraging. He always regarded himself as God's gift to women, thought he was really fantastic looking. You had to be 'a real round mound of sound, y'know' to attract the girls. He wouldn't go for a beer with us after the show, though. He was very rigorous. He'd be back in his room in his underpants and his cowboy hat and his sheriff's badge, ordering White Tower burgers. He'd have five cheeseburgers and four regular burgers. Compared to him they were only the size of a dime. He was a bit like Bluto in the Popeye cartoons.

I'll always remember a piece of advice he gave me. I got him in the dressing room and said: 'We're with this record company called Decca and they're really not doing anything for us. What do you think I should do?' 'Well,' he said, 'go into their office and say: "If you ain't gonna shit, get off the pot."'

It was really just such an honour and a pleasure to meet him. He is part of the DNA of rock 'n' roll, but like many great musicians he never got the credit he was due. It's a shame that he's gone, but you can still hear his influence in music today. The Bo Diddley effect lives on - and I think it'll only get stronger.